Ice cool match-winner Catherine Rose praised the “unmatched team spirit” and raucous atmosphere that carried GB’s women to a thrilling triumph at the FIP Euro Padel Cup in Madrid.
Great Britain’s men’s and women’s teams both finished top of their groups in Phase 2 of the competition last weekend, thus sealing qualification for the Final 8 stage this autumn, where Europe’s elite nations — Spain, Italy, France and Portugal — lie in wait.
While GB’s men completed a clean sweep of 3-0 victories over Switzerland, Greece and Monaco, dropping just a single set, GB’s women faced a tougher route to glory. Austria and Poland were beaten briskly enough, but their fate always seemed likely to come down to the climatic group match against Sweden on Sunday morning — and so it proved.
The virtually faultless Aimee Gibson-Tia Norton partnership, which dropped just four games in three matches, kicked the denouement off with a 6-2 6-0 victory, but Abigail Tordoff and debutante Laura Jackson then went down 6-1 6-0 to Amanda Girdo and Linnea Björk.
That set up a tension-racked decider, in which Rose and partner Lisa Phillips admirably kept their composure amidst a cacophony of noise to record a clinching 6-2 7-6 victory against Hanna Börjeson and Lisa Andersson.
“The team spirit this year has been unmatched,” GB no.2 Rose told The Padel Paper. “We all really want each other to win and do well. It got us through that match. The crowd were with us the whole way. It was a tight second set but we held it together really well and backed ourselves. It was honestly a massive help.
“Sweden had a massive gathering of people here, but our men’s match finished early so they all came down to support us. I think we were louder than Sweden in the end!”
Rose, who suffered two agonisingly close defeats against the Netherlands and Sweden at last year’s European Championships in Sardinia, was ecstatic to exorcise those ghosts. “I’m really proud of how we stood up and handled the pressure this time,” said the 26-year-old.
“We had belief we could win this year. That is a testament to the hard work we’ve been putting in and the results we’ve been getting individually over the last year.”
Rose and GB no.1 Gibson singled out Agustin Silingo as the team’s secret weapon. The Argentine legend, a former world champion and coach of the great Juan Lebron, is a new addition to the women’s coaching team alongside Libby Fletcher.
“People are intimidated by us because we’re coming in with someone so respected,” said Rose. “It gives us an aura. What he says and does on the bench makes such a difference in the match. In situations it’s tough to work out on your own, his input is so valuable.”
Gibson, the world no.93, added: “Silingo makes such a big difference in these matches. He’s very experienced in these situations and gives us a lot of confidence because we know we can rely 100% on what he’s got to say.”
Despite insisting pre-match that GB were “underdogs” against Sweden, co-captain Libby Fletcher later said: “In fact I was very confident we were going to go in and win that match. I think they were more afraid of us than we were of them.
“I could not be more proud of the girls. Last year it felt like we arrived on the international scene and this year we’ve fulfilled that billing. We’ve created a really healthy culture for the women’s team and they are all bouncing off each other and wanting to be better all the time.”
For GB’s men, a favourable draw meant they went into their group campaign targeting a clean sweep across the three matches — something they achieved without too much discomfort.
“Every day we set ourselves that challenge so credit to the guys,” said debutant Tom Farquharson. “We all went in super focused on what we wanted to do. We didn’t take our foot off the gas at all, we all went for it. It was a well deserved clean sheet this weekend.”
Britain’s players arrived several days early in order to acclimatise to the hot, bouncy conditions inside the G24 Padel arena in Madrid. Farquharson said this extra attention to detail paid dividends.
“The conditions are fast compared to the UK, so it was a really good move by the LTA to get us out here early and get us used to the conditions. By the time we started our first match, we’d acclimatised nicely, we were prepared and raring to go.”
Tom’s older brother Sandy, who took charge as men’s co-captain for the first time alongside John Leach, looked ahead to the challenge of the FIP Euro Padel Cup Final 8 later this year.
“If we compare the other seven nations who’ve qualified with ourselves we probably have the fewest amounts of courts, which translates as us needing to put in more work to compete at that level.
“We’ve got to go away as a team and ask how can we get our top eight to 10 players ready over the next three months for the next phase.”
The Padel Paper will bring you news of the date and venue announcement for the FIP Euro Padel Cup Final 8 and will, of course, have all the build-up and live coverage
